Perfect Pearl Necklace

Perfect pearl necklace...

It has taken five years of searching through $100 million worth of pearls - 25 harvests from five pearl farms - to arrive at this moment with the perfect specimens laid out before them. Henderson, the head designer of Kailis jewellers in Perth, and Skitmore, his technician, are assembling the most expensive string of pearls they’ve ever done. Each one has been chosen for its perfect roundness, pink hue (the most desirable) and exceptional lustre.

“When you’re working with something so special you really want to make it just right,” says Henderson.

Later, when the piece has been completed, he describes his reaction on picking it up for the first time: “It was one of those eureka moments. It brought a tear to my eye, because you don’t see such things very often.”

Expressions of interest for the necklace have already been received in the region of $800,000, but it could go for much higher than that. “Because of the rarity of these pearls, the market will ultimately dictate the price,” says Kailis’ general manager Sonia Mackay-Coghill.

The South Sea pearls used in the necklace are also behind the success of fellow Australian pearl companies Paspaley and Autore. Paspaley’s South Sea pearls are sought after by the world’s finest jewellery houses and designers including Tiffany & Co, Harry Winston, David Yurman and Mikimoto, but it reserves the cream of the crops for its own collections, which are sold in boutiques in Sydney, Broome, Darwin, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.